Situation Critical!!

[JJ]

Well, it's not really THAT bad, but it got YOU here...

All codes. R2, outs don't matter. Passed ball, R2 advances to third base and rounds it. F2 runs back to the screen and picks up the ball, then throws behind R2 at third base - and nails him (edited to say "throws him out").
Here's the kicker -
Here comes R2's coach from the dugout and he tells U1 that the ball the catcher picked up wasn't the game ball - "There's the game ball", he says, and U1 now sees a SECOND ball on the ground about a foot from where the FIRST ball was picked up by the catcher.
Oh-Oh!
NOW what do you do? U1 was not aware of the second ball until it was called to his attention. U2 wasn't, either, but he thinks the ball the catcher picked up was in fact the wrong ball.
Rulings/educated opinions, please?

JJ

[Illini_Ref]

Play on. I see no way that you know WHICH ball was the game ball and even so, I'm not opening THAT can of worms.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Wow, and I went ahead and called 911!

I would contend that it didn't matter which ball was played, as at the time, the "wrong ball" was considered the game ball for all intents and purposes. I would just call time, put R2 on third where he would be anyway, since the ball didn't go out of play, and play on. R2 got hit with a baseball. That entitles him to say, "ouch!"

[JJ]

Um, Steve, when I said the catcher "nailed" R2, I meant he threw him out. NOW where do we go?

JJ

[SanDiegoSteve]

Oh, that's very different....never mind! (ode to Emily)

In that case R2 is out. It was reasonably expected that the ball played was the game ball. There wasn't supposed to be another ball lying there a foot away. The catcher picked up the ball he thought was the game ball, so it becomes the game ball until playing action stops. Anything that happens on the play stands.

[L.A. Umpire Guy]

Pennant race, 1980; Dodgers at San Diego. Some Padre lines a bullet down the line and it goes into the Dodgers bullpen in the corner, takes a hop on the bullpen mound and lands in the bullpen ball bucket. Dusty Baker hesitates, and then grabs a ball and throws it in. Baker's livid that R1 gets to score and that the BR gets to go to third.

I was in the photographer's area at the end of the dugout and Baker came in and went ballistic. He smoked two cigarettes before he went back out on the field. He also went off on Derrell Thomas for pausing while he waited for the umpire to call a dead ball.

And the ball Baker threw in wasn't the gamer. It's the only ball confusion incident i have seen in the big leagues in over 42 years.

[RPatrino]

Damn coach, they all look the same to me....!!!

[tiger49]

What was U1 watching while F2 went to get the ball?? The ball could've been in DBT...touched by F2's detached equipment...F2 interfered with by the on deck batter retreiving the stray ball etc.

If he followed the ball he would have seen the real game and the other ball and would have known which is which.

[waltjp]

Play stands. Toss both balls out and replace with fresh ones.